Jump to content
Brewer Fanatic

Thurston Fluff

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,703

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Profiles

Forums

Blogs

Events

News

2026 Milwaukee Brewers Top Prospects Ranking

Milwaukee Brewers Videos

2022 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

Milwaukee Brewers Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

2024 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

The Milwaukee Brewers Players Project

2025 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Pick Tracker

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Thurston Fluff

  1. Thurston Fluff
    It really depends on organizational philosophy. If you're a team that tries to build a super team and are willing to do a tear down and rebuild after then no. If you're a more bites at the apple team then yes. What I don''t think any team should do is change how they approach team building every couple years. Which is why I say the Brewers should trade him.
  2. Thurston Fluff
    The Brewers just terminated their deal with Fanduel so they're probably going to get less by joining MLB. The farm loaded with infield prospects including Cooper Pratt who's as likely to help as any veteran we'd bring in as a backup plan. It seems like a waste to spend limited resources on a plan B that is no more likely to be productive than our current plan B.
  3. Thurston Fluff
    Something from the Sal Bando Wendy Selig-Prieb years just to give us perspective on how far we've come.
  4. Thurston Fluff
    I had to have a tooth removed on Monday. On Tuesday Sai Ram gave us some free food for helping with their grand re-opening. Then today the Korean grocer next door gave us some free food for helping them out. For those who live in Appleton they're the original Koreana people. They gave us some beef bulgogi, fish cakes and potato salad. All of which are some of my favorites. Two of my favorite places give us stuff for free and I can't eat any of it. I'm just going to sit in a corner and cry now. P.S. anyone who liked Koreana they still make most of their food at their store. The bulgogi is frozen and easy to make at home. All the sides that used to come with their food is there as well. The potato salad is done in batches only occasionally. It goes quickly when it's made.
  5. Thurston Fluff
    That's where it gets complicated. It's a judgement call to say the average throw from second caused the missed double play when it was going to be close either way. I don't think it matters much because there aren't very many plays that fit into that category but it does show the importance of team defense. I think what makes the Brewers defense do good is how few weak spots there are. I cringe when I hear people say they can afford to sacrifice defense for offense at one position because they have other great defenders. Infield defense in particular is more of a team effort.
  6. Thurston Fluff
    Great article. One question I have though is how do they measure a missed double play when one player does a great job of turning it but the other doesn't? For example the shortstop makes a diving stop and great throw to second but the second baseman makes an average throw to first and/or the first baseman fails to make a great stretch. I get how all of them would score well if a great play is made by all but how do they separate when only one player does a fantastic job? Is it just the eye test determining if the shortstop "made" the play or does it just go down as a play not made for all? Most other plays, throwing runners out from the outfield for example, are easy to judge. When it comes to double plays there's a lot more going on. I guess the only other question is how does sample size play into each?
  7. Thurston Fluff
    I have no doubt individual teams have their own version of value that takes their park effects and other variables into account. The problem is more from a fan/media perspective. Defense is so much harder to determine objective league wide metrics. Brewers wise I don't think it's a coincidence they've moved to ground ball pitchers when they have such good infield defense. Nor is it a coincidence they collected a lot of good defensive infielders around the same time ground ball pitchers went out of fashion. The cost effectiveness is not just finding undervalued assets but finding a combination of undervalued assets that complement each other.
  8. Thurston Fluff
    I think the bigger problem with WAR and defense is determining the value of defense vs offense. Making it even harder is the value of defense varies depending on the pitcher. Ground ball pitchers need better infield defense. Flyball/strikeout pitchers less so. The stadium effect is also in play. Teams with large outfields need better/faster defense in the outfield. Overall defensive WAR is still a work in progress but one that I believe will eventually get to the point where most people agree on an objective number. I think it will take longer to take park effects and pitcher type into account but it's still doable. I question whether a single all WAR taking both defense and offense into account for all teams in all fields is possible.
  9. Thurston Fluff
    With Collins out of the picture I think there's a better chance he gets a legitimate shot now than there was.
  10. Thurston Fluff
    I sometimes wonder if money drains brains in sports.
  11. Thurston Fluff
    True, but I'm not as worried about it as some. First, he'll be another year removed from surgery. Second, it's not just arm strength that goes into it. He had limited action catching last season. I wouldn't be surprised if all of his abilities behind the plate would take some time to get back mechanically and physically. Even if his arm isn't as strong as it once was, his ability to get the ball out of his hand quicker and get into throwing position faster will improve with time behind the plate. Third, small sample warning lights should be going off. Throwing out runners is not just on the catcher. When dealing with a large data set a better caught stealing % is more reliable. That weeds out the significance of pitchers who don't hold runners well, or an unusually high number of great base stealers who can make a smaller sample size look different than the catcher's actual ability. I'm not trying to say he's ready now nor downplaying what shoulder surgery has on caught stealing rates. I'm just not that worried he's no longer capable of being a good overall catcher when his entire goal was to get back up to speed as a catcher. At least not based on a half season's worth of caught stealing rates.
  12. Thurston Fluff
    To be fair, there's more to defense behind the plate than throwing out runners. I have zero idea what Garver was like but from what I've read and heard about Quero was he's an all around good defensive catcher.
  13. Thurston Fluff
    On a pure player talent evaluation it seems lopsided. When factoring in things like service time, roster space and options it looks closer to even. We may be short of starting outfielders but had a lot of 4th outfielder types. We freed up a spot on the 40 man roster by trading a redundant player. I might be reading too much into this but with all the lefties in the pen it sure seems like they're viewing at least one, more likely two, as starters. With Woody, Priester and Miz locks I think Peralta's time here is over.
  14. Thurston Fluff
    1- 7th or earlier is not the same as earlier than the 7th. Nor is his use early in the season the same as when his role was established. Murphy used him in the 7th when there were some lefties coming in the 8th. Both innings are essentially setup innings when you have a both a left and right handed set man. Early in the season nobody knew what to expect out of Uribe. Once he established himself we was used late in close games as a setup man. I don't know if you're trying to deny Murphy wasn't going with roles or you just don't want anyone in roles but it was pretty clear Murphy does. 2- Your argument was most definitely you not wanting to pigeon hole Uribe into one role from the start. I was wrong on what you meant by pigeon hole but not wrong that one of your reasons not to trade Megill was because you didn't want Uribe stuck in one role. The point remains he's going to be either way. The only question is which role. 3- We agree trading Megill to save money is a bad idea. I was never defending the idea of trading him to save money. I just didn't agree with either the argument that he wasn't ready or that he'd suddenly be pigeon holed into a single role was a valid reason not to.
  15. Thurston Fluff
    How many times did Uribe come into the game earlier than the seventh inning last season? Murphy has used relievers in pretty clear roles for the bullpen as a whole. While it took time for the roles to shakeout, as it does every year given the volatility of relievers, they each had roles that were pretty defined. Uribe was pretty much a pure setup man prior to closing. I don't recall him being used to get out of a jam in the 5th or 6th inning at all last season. His role last season was the right handed setup man. It wasn't a fireman used whenever seemed most important. Your argument boils down to you don't want to pigeon hole a guy who was already pigeon holed. You may not agree with him being used that way but he was used that way.
  16. Thurston Fluff
    If that's what you meant fine. That doesn't seem to be how the Brewers operate though. There's enough recent history here showing they use their best reliever as the closer.
  17. Thurston Fluff
    Hard not to see the pigeon holing comment as anything other than an inference he isn't ready for the role.
  18. Thurston Fluff
    I saw another post saying something similar about him being a setup man and now we'd somehow be pigeon holing Uribe in the 9th. Where did that come from? Uribe has shown he's more than ready, willing, and able to close. He was being groomed to be one since the minors. It's been obvious for a while that he's the heir apparent closer. There's an argument to be made he'd be our best option now even with Megill on the roster. That doesn't mean I'm for trading Megill. With him we have one of the top back ends of the pen in the game. The ability to shorten the game for a team like the Brewers for less than $5 million is hard to pass up. It just means claiming Uribe is somehow not ready or capable of being a top end closer seems way off to me. If the Brewers want to trade from the bullpen to save money Ashby would be the one IMHO. He's on a team friendly deal if he's a starter but not so friendly as a reliever. If, and it's a big if, the brewers think his days as a starter here are over he could be traded to a team that views him as a starter. A cost controlled starter on a team friendly contract would probably bring back more than Megill would as well. With Hall and a decent number of young starters who could be used as multi inning relievers Ashby is a luxury we can replace. It would also give Ashby a chance to be a starter somewhere. He seems like a guy who could net us a high ceiling prospect who doesn't need 40 man roster protection plus some more immediate help all while saving us money.
  19. Thurston Fluff
    Seems odd to have Churio and Ashby in there considering they signed long term deals.
  20. Thurston Fluff
    I don't think peripherals are always as indicative of production as some people think but I base that on some pitchers who tend to regularly out/under perform their FIP. When the same pitcher changes from their normal pattern I think there's something going on.
  21. Thurston Fluff
    I know it''s impossible to know one way or the other but this might make Peralta harder to trade. Teams know the Brewers would like to have a veteran with all the youth but they also know the Brewers don't have a lot of money so it balanced it out. With Woody back in the fold teams may think the Brewers have more of a need to trade Peralta.
  22. Thurston Fluff
    From a purely objective stance I would have been ok either way on this one. The way I look at it is if they planned on getting a veteran pitcher they'd have to spend at least $10 million anyway. When adding in the buyouts and such probably more. That makes this about $12 million to get a certain amount of certainty/continuity with no future financial risk. We know performs well in this environment, has a good track record of production and has shown he can be productive with his current arsenal. From a fan perspective I'm happy he's back for one more run.
  23. Thurston Fluff
    IF you've seen him play in AAA your better qualified than I am to judge his progress. I doubt most people who judged his defense have the same amount of recent first hand experience to make a judgement. Which is why I used Durbin as a comparison. I saw some of the same sort of thing when people decided Turang didn't have a strong enough arm to be an elite defensive shortstop despite him coming up as a defense first shortstop.
  24. Thurston Fluff
    That's what people said about Durbin's defense at third. I think people forget defense can improve and sometimes that's why a player is left in the minors playing everyday.
  25. Thurston Fluff
    This is probably not going to be a popular take but I wouldn't be opposed to giving Black a legitimate shot in left. I know the conventional thought is the Brewers have soured on him or Murphy doesn't trust him but I'm not so sure conventional wisdom is right in this case. It may have been as simple as wanting to keep him playing everyday to improve his defense and not wanting to yo-yo him between AAA and the majors.
×
×
  • Create New...